Knulp Quotes

If a beautiful thing were to remain beautiful for all eternity, I'd be glad, but all the same Id look at it with a colder eye. I'd say to myself: You can look at it any time, it doesn't have to be today.

A father can pass on his nose and eyes and even his intelligence to his child, but not his soul. In every human being the soul is new

He had too much to think about. In the course of his long, useless marches he had sunk deeper and deeper into the tangle of his botched life as into a clump of brambles, and still he had found no meaning or consolation.

If a beautiful thing were to remain beautiful for all eternity, I’d be glad, but all the same I’d look at it with a colder eye. I’d say to myself: You can look at it any time, it doesn’t have to be today. But when I know that something is perishable and can’t last forever, I look at it with a feeling not just of joy but of compassion as well.

no matter how close two human beings may be, there is always a gulf between them which only love can bridge, and that only from hour to hour.

You could observe people's folly, you could laugh at them or feel sorry for them, but you had to let them go their own way.

He had thrown himself away, he had lost interest in everything, and life, falling in with his feelings, had demanded nothing of him. He had lived as an outsider, an idler and onlooker, well liked in his young manhood, alone in his illness and advancing years. Seized with weariness, he sat down on the wall, and the river murmured darkly in his thoughts.

If a beautiful thing were to remain beautiful for all eternity, I'd be glad, but all the same I'd look at it with a colder eye. I'd say to myself: You can look at it any time, it doesn't have to be today.

Every day I did something wrong, and in the end I began to enjoy it.

Knulp said: “Every human being has his own soul, he can’t mix it with any other. Two people can meet, they can talk with one another, they can be close together. But their souls are like flowers, each rooted to its place. One can’t go to another, because it would have to break away from its roots, and that it can’t do. Flowers send out their scent and their seeds, because they would like to go to each other; but a flower can’t do anything to make a seed go to its right place; the wind does that, and the wind comes and goes where it pleases.

Knulp was right in doing what his nature demanded and what few others could do, in speaking to strangers like a child and winning their hearts, in saying pleasant things to ladies of all ages, and making Sundays out of weekdays.

Can't you see that you had to be a reckless drifter to bring ... people a bit of child's folly and child's laughter wherever you went? To make all sorts of people love you a little and tease you a little and be a little grateful to you?

because I loved them both and wanted to make them my own, they became to me a kind of dream figure, which looks like both of them and is neither. That figure belongs to me, but it no longer has life.

He tried to think of death as he had done now and then, but that tired him and he dozed off. When he awoke an hour later, he felt fresh and calm as though he had slept for days.

Here it is Saturday. You wouldn't know how good it feels after a hard week." "Oh, I can imagine," said Knulp with a smile.

I pondered my friend's words. I liked best what he had said about the fireballs since I myself often had the same feeling. The quiet spell of the colored flame, rising into the darkness and all too soon drowning in it, struck me as a symbol of all human pleasure, for the more beautiful it is, the less it satisfies us and the more quickly it is spent.

But we'll never again be so young … Or don't you like dancing?

Her little treasure of experiences opened up, and it was larger than she herself would have supposed.

[make] Sundays out of weekdays.

The air and earth had lived in response to his dreams and desires. … [E]ven today … this world belonged to him as much as to any owners of these houses and gardens.

Niente è più odioso dei confini, niente è più stupido.

Rothfuss thought about his eccentric friend who wanted nothing of life but to look on, and ... could not have said if this was asking too much or too little.

You're free this evening, Barbele. You just don't want to come.

Her chatter had set her free from a long week of loneliness, of doing what she was told and saying nothing. She was all cheered up.

Patria non è qua o là. Patria è dentro te, o in nessun luogo.

I wanted to say a prayer and tried hard to remember one, but all I could think of was silly phrases such as 'Dear Sir' and 'Under the Circumstances'. In my sadness and confusion I mumbled those.

Las flores se marchitan Cuando la niebla llega Así también la gente Y bajan a sus tumbas. La gente es, como las flores, Regresan a su primavera; Y nunca más vuelven a languidecer, Y todo les es perdonado.

E poi di nuovo, come oggi, può divenirmi problematico il fatto che abbia veramente visto, udito, odorato qualcosa o se invece tutto ciò che credo di percepire altro non sia se non l'immagine della mia vita interiore proiettata fuori di me.

Adamların gicliyinə tamaşa etmək, onlara gülmək, hallarına acımaq olar, ancaq işlərinə qarışmaq - heç vaxt.

Ich denke, das Schönste ist immer so, daß man dabei außer dem Vergnügen auch noch eine Trauer hat oder eine Angst.

Jeder Mensch ist heilig, wenn es ihm mit seinen Gedanken und Taten wirklich ernst ist.

Non puoi essere vagabondo e artista e contemporaneamente borghese e uomo sano e decoroso. Ti vuoi ubriacare, allora tieniti anche il mal di testa! Se dici di sì alla luce del sole e alle fantasie leggiadre, devi dire sì anche alla sporcizia e al disgusto. Tutto questo è in te, oro e fango, bramosia e pena, riso infantile e paura della morte. Dì a tutto sì , non sottrarti a niente, non tentare di eludere niente.

Non fa nessuna differenza, salvo un piccolo particolare, che per me ad ogni modo è di massima importanza. Che io senta la vita guizzare in me, sia essa sulla lingua o nelle suole, sia nella voluttà o sia nel tormento, che la mia anima sia mobile e possa insinuarsi con cento giuochi della fantasia in cento forme, in parroci e viandanti, in cuoche e assassini, in fanciulli e animali, in particolare in uccelli ed anche in alberi, questo è essenziale, questo voglio e di questo ho bisogno per vivere, e se un giorno tutto questo non dovesse più essere, se la mia vita dovesse essere inquadrata nella cosidetta “realtà”, allora preferirei morire.

Cada pessoa tem sua alma e não pode misturá-la à de mais ninguém. Duas pessoas podem se encontrar, conversar e estar próximas uma da outra. Mas suas almas são como flores, cada uma enraizada em seu lugar. Uma não pode ir até a outra, ou arrancaria suas raízes, e isso ela não pode fazer. As flores espalham seu aroma e suas sementes, porque gostariam de estar umas com as outras; mas uma flor não pode fazer nada para que uma semente chegue ao lugar certo, quem o faz é o vento, e este vai e vem a seu bel prazer

Ein jeder Mensch hat seine Seele, die kann er mit keiner anderen vermischen. Zwei Menschen können zueinander gehen, sie können miteinander reden und nah beieinander sein. Aber ihre Seelen sind wie Blumen, jede an ihrem Ort angewurzelt, und keine kann zu der anderen kommen, sonst müßte sie ihre Wurzel verlassen, und das kann sie eben nicht. Die Blumen schicken ihren Duft und ihren Samen aus, weil sie gern zueinander möchten; aber daß ein Same an seine rechte Stelle kommt, dazu kann die Blume nichts tun, das tut der Wind, und der kommt her und geht hin, wie und wo er will.

My little gifts gave them pleasure and sometimes they were thankful to me. Why ask for more? Can't we content ourselves with that?

If a beautiful thing were to remain beautiful for all eternity, I'd be glad, but at the same time I'd look at it with a colder eye. I'd say to myself: You can look at it any time, it doesn't have to be today. But when I know something is perishable and can't last forever, I look at it with a feeling not just of joy but of compassion as well.

Every human being has his soul, he can't mix it with any other. Two people can meet, they can talk with one another, they can be close together. But their souls are like flowers, each rooted to its place. One can’t go to another, because it would have to break away from its roots, and that it can’t do.

Everybody's got to figure out for himself what's true and what life is like; those are things that you can't learn from any book.

Se una cosa bella dovesse rimanere tale per tutta l'eternità, ne avrei gioia, certamente, ma la guarderei con maggiore freddezza e penserei: 'Avrò tempo di vederla: perchè guardarla proprio oggi?' Ciò che invece è caduco e non può rimanere uguale, io lo guardo non solo con gioia, ma anche con pietà.

Podemos observar a estupidez das pessoas, podemos rir delas ou sentir compaixão, mas é preciso deixar que sigam seu caminho

Pensava no seu amigo que não queria nada da vida além de ser um espectador, e Rothfuss não sabia dizer se aquilo era uma atitude ambiciosa ou modesta.